"Breaking News on God and Other Higher Beings in this World and the World to Come" (Edited by Cliff Pickover, www.pickover.com, author of "The Math Book."

Monday, January 30, 2006

Whom did Cain Marry?

Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel as children. Abel is killed, leaving only Cain. Whom did Cain marry?

Biblical apologists have interesting explanations for Cain’s wife. (A biblical "apologist" is one who ardently defends the integrity of the Bible.) They suggest that people in the book of Genesis lived exceptionally long lives -- many hundreds of years. If this is accepted, there could be millions of people on Earth by the time Cain looks for a wife. Even if Cain and his wife were closely related from a genetic standpoint, the marriage would not have been sinful because the command against marrying close relatives did not appear until Moses’s day. For example, Abraham married his half-sister.

even if one believes that the bible is historically accurate, it doesnt mean that it has all the details in it. the explanation for this can be as simple as that God created other people by then and cain married one of them.

This really is a good question. One I have debated since childhood. No I'm not a smarty pants, my family are Lutherans, have always been Lutherans probably will always be Lutherans. My fathers’ family immigrated here from Sweden where you're born Lutheran. Anyway I spent a good deal of my tender years going through catechism and being one that had very little discipline I always argued with the preacher on things that didn't make since. Obviously there were quite a few arguments since we were dealing with the bible. I always wondered where all these other people came from but I never got an answer that was acceptable. I would like one of the enlightened commenters of this blog to please explain it to me. I'm all ears.....or eyes.

Just like the Bible doesn't really mention nor deny the existance of Jesus's brothers and sisters, the same could be true with Cain and Abel. If the creation story (and thus the story of C&A) is literally true, after the Fall, it is quite possible that Adam and Eve's genes were still near perfect, thus removing the issue of inter-breeding. Cain could have easily married one of his sisters. For that matter, Abel could have done the same before he died.

i think you mean "with whom did cain procreate," not necessarily marry. in light of your abraham observation, why not eve?

personally, i don't believe that the story has any connection to historical fact, so the significance is whether or not this would pose a contradiction to the Judeo-Christian tradition not a question of how in fact it actually happened.

Here was my asnwer a few years ago when i got it, it might be a different answer now:

Thanks for a very important and appropriate question. Many apologists and columnists who deal with Bible questions, especially from skeptics, say that this is actually the number one question they get. So it was only inevitable I would get it eventually. This woman, and debates about her existence, was even brought into the famous Scopes trial (as "proof" the Bible was not to be taken at face value); mentioned in the play/movie "Inherit the Wind"; and in agnostic Carl Sagan's book/movie "Contact." And as mystifying as this question seems at first, the answer is simple and fairly obvious; though for some it raises (unnecessarily) further complications.

The dilemma: Cain, the first son of the first parents (Adam and Eve), is mentioned in Genesis 4:17 as having a wife! Where in the world did he get her? The main solutions you often hear circulate around these two scenarios:

1.) This craziness proves that the Bible is fallible and untrustworthy.2.) He found a wife who belonged to another race (one not born of Adam and Eve), either in the land of Nod (where he is reported to have sojourned in Genesis 4:16-17..but note, though a wife is mentioned at this point, the text nowhere connotes that he met her there); or from some "other-worldly" race, such as the Nephilim (Gen 6:4, Num 13:13).

Not many make the logical, and I believe correct, leap to what should be the "final answer" of Scenario #3: ....(hold your breath; roll the drum and then read):

... he married his sister!

"Whoa, Nellie!, " some are objecting. Wouldn't that be incest, and therefore create another dilemma regarding Cain breaking a law of God? No. When you think about it, what other choice did Cain have but to marry a sister? Who else was there? (I am making a crucial assumption that there is only one "race" of humans, and that everyone is eventually related to Adam and Eve..if some see that as quaint and fundamentalist. so be it!) God did not specifically "outlaw" marriage with close relatives until 2500 years later...as spelled out in Lev. 18-20. And the classic reasons given against marrying a sister have to do with genetic complications and risk. But how pure would Adam and Eve's genes have been? By Moses' time, you can understand how that had changed.

Note that Cain was not the only child of Adam and Eve..only the first. We know two brothers were born soon after Cain; Abel in 4:2 and Seth by 4:25. But now some are asking the next necessary question: OK, Where did Cain get a sister, then? Well, contrary to popular (mis)understanding (and sometimes skeptical conspiracy), the Bible (check Genesis 5:4) DOES flat-out say that Adam and Eve had other children:"After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years, and had other sons and daughters."

Now, some are saying (I hear you!) :"Ah, I can see that, but considering the long life spans of the day; and the potentially large number of children eventually born to Adam and Eve, couldn't Cain have, if he waited long enough, married a niece?" Yes, fair reader, fair insight. I think that is possible; and I have no problem if that is your conclusion. But I believe that it was actually a sister is a safer bet, due to how early on in the story Cain's "marriage" seems to occur. (However, if this lessens your nervousness about incest; since a niece is more distant than a sister; note that the biblical inunctions regarding incest do indeed include no marriage to an aunt, uncle, or brother's wife..Lev 18:7-17; 20:11-12,14,17,20-21; Deut. 22:30; 27:20,22,23).

Below is a link to a helpful response to this question from ChristianAnswers.Net, which basically agrees with my answer, but also sheds probable light on some other "complications" that may be triggered here. By the way, for such a "controversial" question, one will be hard-pressed to find a Bible-believing commentator who doesn't point out that the answer I gave is a "no-brainer" (which is why I could come up with it, you say :).....)

-Christian answers link-

Finally, as you may have found out; as helpful and biblical as it is to study such dilemmas in order to strengthen and defend our faith; giving "reasons for the hope within", there is no arguing with a hardened skeptic. But rejoice in the fact that we do have a Bible and a God that can be trusted. Both will withstand any questioning and test; even if the wrestling is uncomfortable and stretching. Though our faith is "beyond reason", it is not unreasonable.

I dont think its right to say "it all make believe" or "none of this happenned", to things that we do not understand.

The Bible is the Word of God and has to be studied, learned, understood only after asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives wisdom to understand.

Coming back to C&A story, the Jews and the Arabs who also belive in the same God, have this to say. Abel and Cain had twin sisters, whom they could marry or intermarry. In either case procreaton had to continue and Gos in all His wisdom knows how to provide.

This is very true because Genesis 5 records the descendents of Adam and mentiones they had "other sons and daughters". ALso during the days of Adam, human beings had longer life spans and so had longer child-bearing years. So its quite possible that by the time Adam and Eve died, that were a large number of human beings in the world, which then on just continued.

I was raised a Christian, & have never even wondered about this in my entire life. I don't care- in the slightest.

It is ok that other people want to understand every word & statement in any religious work, but it is an effort in futility.

What is not a futile effort is looking at religious writings as a guidebook to give clues to wisdom.

If a story is told about a woman that turned around & looked at something when ordered not to & was turned into a block of salt, you are not supposed to spend time wondering if they chopped up the block & used it as cow licks.

An author(Ican't remember which one) gave an example I'm going to play with the words & use. He said a wise man extended his arm with a finger pointing, & the people around consentrated on the finger. He was pointing to something "out there" the people were supposed to go find & gain wisdom from.

If you spend your time consentrating on the finger, you will never find what the story was written for in the first place.

Winston Churchill said that it is amazing the effort people will expend to avoid the labor of thinking.

I copied this paragraph from the end of Genesis 4, from the King James Bible, which I found onthe internet. If this is correct, doesnt it state that Eve procreated with Cain? Its seems a bit obvious to me.

'And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.'

Please any comments welcome as I am starting to study the bible and this is very interesting.

OK, God didn't condemn incest until He told Moses it was a no-no. So that made it OK up to that point, right?That makes as much sense as saying that it was OK for Cain to kill Abel because up to that point, God didn't say it was wrong.

There is a very interesting book called The Head Of God by Keith Laidler that proposes that Moses and the pharaoh Amenhotep IV,who later changed his name to Akhenaten, were one and the same. The book reads like a history book, not a work of fiction. Laidler gives near perfect timelines to prove his theory. Actually, Freaud was the the 1st to propose the link between the 2. Akhenaten was the 1st and only egyptian pharaoh to propose monotheism. It's an amazing book, and anyone who is openminnded will enjoy it. Every page I read I thought "Wow!"

God created all races on the 6th day male & female. God rested on the 7th he created Adam & Eve after that. All races existed before Adam & Eve were made into flesh so it means there were others who existed not of flesh like Adam & Eve but from the 6th day creation. That is why Cains descendants were called Cainites. See rhis link for more. http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/bb000416.htm

This is actually quite simple. Today in modern times man has been in the presence of radiation fromt he sun, hence over time our genes in our genetic code have had mutations. Early in creation the earth had the firmament surrounding it, this reduced massively any mutations. So in our early history brother and sister having offspring woudl not have the mutations that commonly exist in mankind today because there were no mutated genes to cause thr problems associated that we see today with incest.

God would have had to make more than two humans to start off with for it to work especially as they were prone to murdering one another almost from day one ! Why would a God create billions of stars and planets and only two people ? None of it makes the slightest sense to me .

Some people say that Cain's wife was Lilith. Apart from that, Whom was Adam's first wife, but she left him. Then Lilith married Satan/Lucifer, which whom made her a Demon. She was the serpent that tricked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit off the tree of life, Some say for revenge. People also say that Lilith was Cain, Abel, and Seth's sister. That is said Cain married his sister Lilith. But the story changed so much, It is said the Lilith was also Lucifer's sister.

all of the comments i have read are very well thought out and provoke much curiousity. However, hasn't anyone read also that after Cain killed Abel the Lord our God placed a mark on Cain so that others he came in contact with would not murder him for what he had done? Apparently, when Cain was i.e., excommunicated, there were already humans(?) present on this earth that would be familiar with his shortcomings and would have felt just in murdering him. Also, he could not have become the engineer he was without a labor force. This goes far beyond whom did Cain marry. The answer to which I don't know. Then again I believe that the Bible is a historical/genealogical lineage to the birth of Jesus. Most artist/creators make more than one of the original...especially if the original is GOOD!

Cain married his sister? Hmm, interesting. That means that God changed His mind by the time of Leviticus. Here's the problem folks: An omniscient God cannot change His mind, make a mistake or abrogate; He is perfect and to do that would mean he got something wrong at some stage. Since everything is pre-ordained, we must accept that God didn't see something coming! Nonsense! There is not a single account in The Bible for Cain marrying his sister. There is however clear evidence that God forbade incest. As Christians are so fond of saying, if it's not in The Bible, it's not Christian.